Sony W70 Performance

We were quite impressed with the Sony DSC-W70's responsiveness. It starts up and shuts down quickly enough, and its shutter response is quite a bit faster than average these days, particularly among relatively compact digital cameras. It's faster than average from shot to shot in single-shot mode, but its continuous-mode speed is a little laggardly by current standards. It's ultra high-speed (but lower resolution) Multi-Shot mode makes up for this though, giving frame rates as high as 30 frames/second, albeit for only 16 frames in a series. Another plus in the W70's favor is its excellent battery life, particularly impressive for such a compact camera model.

Timing and Performance

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W70 TimingGood to average speed for a consumer camera.

Startup/Shutdown

Power on
to first shot

1.7 seconds

Time it takes for LCD to turn on and lens to deploy

Shutdown

1.7 seconds

How long it takes to retract lens

Buffer clearing time

4 seconds
(Four large/fine shots)

Worst case buffer clearing time. -- This is the delay after a set of shots before you can remove the card. Some cameras won't retract their lenses and shut down until the buffer is cleared.

The DSC-W70's performance ranges from quite fast to just average here, depending on the task at hand. It starts up fairly quickly, and has a very fast shutter response when the lens is set to wide angle, dropping to merely fast at telephoto. If you "prefocus" the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure, it's blazingly fast, with a shutter delay of only 0.011 second, currently among the fastest on the market. Shot to shot cycle times are good, at about 1.27 seconds for large/fine JPEGs, and it can capture 20 shots or more this quickly without having to slow down and wait for the memory card to catch up. Where the W70 slows down a little is in its Continuous-mode, which we clocked at a bit over one frame/second, for up to four shots in succession for large/fine JPEGs. The flash takes about six seconds to recharge after a full-power shot, also on the slower side, and the W70's flash is fairly limited in its power and range. Download speeds are extremely fast. Bottom line, the W70 is quite responsive for day to day shooting, despite its slightly slow Continuous mode. It should do quite well for average family and travel photography needs.

Battery and Storage Capacity

BatteryPretty good battery life with the LCD on, even better with LCD off.

Test Conditions

Number of Shots

LiIon rechargeable battery, LCD on

360 shots

LiIon rechargeable battery, LCD off

470 shots

Playback Mode

390 minutes

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W70 uses a custom rechargeable LiIon battery for power. The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of, based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions. Though battery life is pretty good, I still recommend picking up a separate battery and keeping it freshly charged and on-hand for extended outings.

StorageNo card is included with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W70, although it accepts Memory Stick Duo memory cards; approximately 58MB RAM is built into the camera.

Image Capacity with
58MB Internal Memory

Fine

Normal

3,072 x 2,304

Images

16

33

File Size

3.6 MB

1.8 MB

2,592 x 1,944

Images

23

43

File Size

2.6 MB

1.4 MB

2,048 x 1,536

Images

37

66

File Size

1.6 MB

924 KB

1,632 x 1,224

Images

59

111

File Size

1.0 MB

548 KB

640 x 480

Images

356

892

File Size

171 KB

68 KB

Despite the relatively generous amount of memory built into the Sony W70, we strongly recommend buying at least a 512MB card, preferably a 1GB one, to give yourself plenty of space for extended outings.